Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally rubber compositions and more particularly, to rubber compositions useful for articles such as tires.
Description of the Related Art
The tire industry strives to improve the wear properties of tires for many reasons including lessening the impact of worn tires on the environment by providing tires that will run longer before having to be discarded and improving the satisfaction of consumers by providing them with tires that can run longer before having to be replaced with new ones.
However, in their efforts to improve wear properties, tire designers often face a compromise between the wear properties they want to improve and other desirable properties of the tire. Tire compromises occur when a tire designer changes a design to improve one characteristic of the tire and there then occurs an offsetting decline in another tire characteristic. One such compromise exists between tire wear and wet braking. Tire designers therefore seek improvements that can break a compromise so that by increasing the one property, there is not a significant corresponding decline in another desired tire characteristic.
Therefore the tire industry seeks to break the compromise between wear and wet braking by searching for ways to improve wear without a significant impact on wet braking.